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US Newspaper Publishers Launch Joint Online Ad Firm - Four top US newspaper publishers - Tribune, Gannett, Hearst and the New York Times Company - are launching a joint online ad sales firm. quadrantONE will serve ads on the online versions of all four publishers’ local newspaper titles, allowing advertisers to place ads across a large, nationwide network of websites.

Kijiji: Better Than Google, MSN And Yahoo’s Classifieds - EBay owns a 25% stake in local classifieds leader Craigslist, but still decided to launch competitor Kijiji to capitalize on the huge hyper-local search market. Kijiji went live overseas first and then came to the U.S. last summer. Since then, traffic to the U.S. version of the site has grown dramatically, from 362,000 visitors in July 2007 to 1.8 million in January 2008, according to comScore.

Baidu Q4 Revs More Than Double; Net Income up 79 Percent - Chinese search engine Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) reported Q4 revenues of $78.3 million, up over 100 percent from last year’s $37.7 million. Net income also soared, increasing 79 percent to $30.1 million ($.87 per share).

Google Tests Video Ads for Search - Lookout, here come Google video ads–and on Google search, no less, a development that few thought would ever happen. Google on Thursday began testing not just videos ads, but also ads with images, maps and other interactive features.

Google Receives 50 Times More Searches on iPhone - One look at Google usage on Apple’s iPhone, and you understand why the search giant is moving into the mobile market. On Wednesday, the company revealed that it’s seen 50 times more searches on Apple’s smartphone than any other mobile handset.

Women Stream TV, Men Prefer YouTube - A new online video study from Nielson Online shows that men tend to be more interested in user-generated video sites like YouTube, while women prefer streams of network TV shows.

In Silicon Valley, Start-Ups Begin Hitting The Breaks - Silicon Valley was flush with cash and optimism just six months ago. Now as the region stares down the barrel of a possible recession, start-up companies and their investors are beginning to hunker down and tighten their belts.

GroupM Search Emerges As Industry’s Biggest Player - WPP GROUP, already Madison Avenue’s largest buyer of search advertising with disparate operations housed within its Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom media networks, and its Outrider search specialty unit, is reorganizing its search operations to create centers of excellence to service clients across all four of those units. The move follows the acquisition of 24/7 Real Media, which itself had a considerable search practice.

Up The Data Stream With A Paddle, Comcast To Invest $70 Million In ‘Canoe’ - COMCAST WILL INVEST UP TO $70 million this year as part of cable operators’ joint effort to develop a national interactive advertising platform, a top company executive said Thursday. Cable executives have indicated that leading operators had banded together to fund the development of a system, code-named “Project Canoe,” (by industry research arm CableLabs), which would allow an advertiser to easily buy national spots. The added benefit–targeted click-through options depending on locale.

Yahoo Relaunches Yahoo Video - Amid the turmoil of staff layoffs, takeover offers and merger discussions, Yahoo has relaunched Yahoo Video. The biggest change to the service is the addition of a 16:9 viewer, along with support for files up to 150mb, embedable playlists and improved user profiles.

Comcast Buys Rest Of Car Site Vehix - Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) is buying out multiplatform and online car site Vehix, for an undisclosed amount. Comcast’s ad sales unit Comcast Spotlight already had a minority stake in the service, and will now fully own it.

Yahoo Acquires Maven Networks - Yahoo is acquiring Maven Networks for $160 million in a merger that makes Yahoo “the leading premium video publisher on the Internet.” The Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant already claims to have the Web’s biggest library of professionally produced, licensed video.

HotOrNot Sold To Canadian Investors; Price Tag: $20 Million — A bit of mystery surrounding tonight’s reports that HotOrNot has been sold to investors associated with Canadian company Avid Life Media. TechCrunch, which broke the news and confirmed it with co-founder James Hong, puts the price at around $20 million.

WPP Takes Stake In Engagement Metrics Firm NuConomy - WPP Group’s digital investment arm has bought an unspecified stake in web-analytics company NuConomy, according to Thomson Financial.

WPP Acquires Web Design Shop - WPP acquired a 75% stake in Web design and development agency, HeathWallace Ltd. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dell has agreed to acquire MessageOne Inc - an Austin, Texas–based provider of SaaS-enabled email services. The deal is valued at approximately $155 million in cash.

SiteScape Acquired by Novell - SiteScape, a provider of secure Web-based workflow and collaboration solutions, was acquired by Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL).

Quebecor Media Announces Take-Up and Acquisition of 9,244,329 Nurun Common Shares - Quebecor Media Inc. announced today that it has taken up and acquired 9,244,329 Nurun common shares representing approximately 59.11% of the Nurun common shares issued and outstanding at the close of business on February 15, 2008 and not already held by Quebecor Media and its affiliates, for a price of Cdn$4.75 per share. The take-up and acquisition of 9,244,329 Nurun common shares by Quebecor Media will allow it to proceed with the privatization of Nurun through a compulsory acquisition (”squeeze-out”) transaction in the event, as at the expiration of the offer, not less than 90% of the shares subject to the offer are tendered, or, alternatively, through a subsequent acquisition transaction.

LiveUniverse has bought Revver Inc. - The news was first reported by NewTeeVee, which puts the sale price at just under $5 million. That’s far less than the $15 million Revver raised in VC funding.

Macrovision Sells Software Business Unit To Thoma Cressey Bravo For $200 Million In Cash - Digital rights manager Macrovision is selling its Software Business Unit to PE firm Thoma Cressey Bravo for $200 million in cash.

RegionalHelpWanted Sold To Warburg Pincus-Backed Firm For $100 Million - RegionalHelpWanted.com, a network of about 350 geographically focused online job boards, has been bought out by OnTargetJobs.com, a Texas-based recruitment-site aggregator. RHW, launched in 1999 and based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., operates its sites under the “…HelpWanted.com” brand in U.S. and the “…JobShop.com” brand in Canada, and also owns dating site Cupid.com. Its revenue was estimated at $35 million annually, according to a Classified Intelligence e-mail alerts (not available online), who also reported the $100 million figure (not disclosed by the companies themselves).

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 3:20 am and is filed under Internet, Digital Media & Software, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.